The crisis in Syria has generated a lot of issues worth addressing, so why not go through some of them.
It’s amusing to see liberals putting full faith in our intelligence services now that they are pro-intervention. Back in 2003, despite intelligence services all across the world agreeing that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, leftists doubted and continue to doubt the accuracy of that intelligence.
Yet, apparently, the current intel on Syria makes it crystal clear that action is necessary.
It is equally amusing to see some among the left suddenly dismissing the importance of the United Nations, as any reasonable person should. With so many terroristic, rogue and otherwise oppressive states counted among the body of the UN, using the United Nations to try and validate the actions of the US and other free countries is counterproductive at best.
Of course, using the UN to validate any military or diplomatic action is precisely what liberals did during the Bush years.
It is somewhat hard to believe that Barack Obama would attempt to pin the “drawing of a red line” on the rest of the world, particularly when video exists of him drawing the line himself. The president’s inability to take responsibility for his own stances when they backfire on him has always undercut his credibility. And Obama’s credibility is all but shredded now.
Though liberals were the first to accuse President Bush of “cowboy diplomacy,” often implying that his ego was the primary motivator behind his policy actions, the Left are curiously silent about President Obama. His reluctance to move forward with military action through repeated delays, yet (up until Tuesday) his continued insistence that we should act reveals that his own ego is invested in the Syria response.
Obama would certainly have stepped back sooner had he not thought he would lose face for doing so.
Both sides in the increasingly unlikely Syria intervention have valid points. There’s much truth in saying that the United States does not (at least, currently) have a strong national interest in intervening in Syria.
However, many of those who are opposed to intervention seem to forget that the United States is also the first and last line of defense against tyranny in the world. To allow anyone to use WMDs without some form of punishment risks allowing the rogue nations of the world to threaten the others as they see fit.
This is not a good time to be an “ally” of the United States. The administration has already proven itself unreliable to friends from Poland in Eastern Europe, to Israel. The weakness of the administration reinforces how alone our friends are today.
Has the presidency ever been in a weaker position than it is now?
Not even Jimmy Carter was so easy to disrespect — and his administration was undoubtedly weak.
Every broken promise, every attack on Obama’s political opponents, and every sound bite of empty bluster has culminated in this moment. Support for the current administration is collapsing; the President has no avenue to cross party lines and no serious leader in the world takes the President of the United States seriously today.
Knowing history, it is hard to tell if cries of World War III are hyperbole or not.
Anything involving Syria invariably involves Russia. And Russia under Putin for a decade and a half, has been seeking the return of Russian hegemony. Whether or not that would result in open conflict between the west and Russia is hard to know.
One must remember that a single, seemingly minor assassination created World War I. And the pieces to create World War II took two decades to fall into place. Any action with respect to Syria, or no action at all could have dramatic consequences.
The entire debacle is proof that Barack Obama is in over his head.
Even if he were a competent domestic president, he clearly did not take into account the various pressures that would be brought about by foreign politics. Our rivals on the world stage are fully aware of his weakness and his unwillingness to act. And now, they’re taking every advantage they can while the presidency is still vulnerable.
